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Joe Dowd: This is no time to derail the Third Track plan

By: Joe Dowd July 6, 2017Comments Off on Joe Dowd: This is no time to derail the Third Track plan

By any standard it was a horrible year for the Long Island Rail Road. First, a February head-on wreck left 29 dead at Rockville Centre. Then in August that year, a freight train and passenger train slammed into each other at Huntington, toppling both trains.

But nothing compared to the night before Thanksgiving, Nov. 22, 1950, west of Jamaica Station.

That night, the eastbound 6:09 out of Penn Station carrying 1,000 people came to a dead stop on the tracks at Kew Gardens. Its brakes had locked. Signal problems followed along with fatal communications errors. A train carrying 1,200 people following just four minutes behind slammed at 30 mph into the paralyzed cars at Kew Gardens.

The carnage of twisted steel left more than 70 people dead and hundreds badly injured. In the aftermath, the state decided to step in and take charge of the antiquated, bankrupt railroad. It still took the state three more years to get the renovation money they needed just to begin improvements.

Given Friday’s dark-of-night derailment of the third-track project, some are asking, “Now what?”

In case you missed it, the MTA on Friday scrapped its third-track proposal just hours before it was to become reality. The reason: a threatened last-minute veto by Senate Republicans. The $2 billion project would add a third track from Floral Park to Hicksville and alleviate a bottleneck that has caused years of delays, inconvenience and – yes – danger along the LIRR’s main line.

There is widespread consensus among Long Island leaders that the improvements are not only necessary but long overdue. Even village mayors whose communities straddle the main line had overcome their objections and gotten on board.

But Sen. Majority Leader John Flanagan, who wields veto power on the state Capital Program Review Board, forced the MTA’s hand, making it resubmit the plan and buying politicians another month of horse trading with Long Island’s future. Flanagan said he advocates a “comprehensive solution to the ongoing crisis.”

I agree, Sen. Flanagan. Spend the money. The busiest commuter railroad in North America, serving 338,000 passengers each weekday, demands much better. Without easy, affordable, reliable access to the city, Long Island’s economy suffers. Our homes won’t be worth as much. Our quality of life will be diminished.

It’s only money. If we don’t do something now, people are going to die.